Scripture concerning Infidelity, and at the true ends of Christian Prophecy, and at the perils of the World from Infidelity, and at the language and spirit of these prophecies, we feel persuaded that the form of Anti-Christianism contemplated by them is not a heathen or infidel, but a religious, one.

IV. We pass to another point. The Woman, who is called the Harlot*, sits on the Beast as on a throne, that is, governs it, and is supported by it. The Beast is represented as having ten Horns + bearing Crowns ‡, which, we are taught, are ten Kingdoms; and these,

of our great English Divine, Bp. Bull. Speaking of certain Romish corruptions, he says, "Wise men have thought that the authors of these romances in religion were no better than the tools of Satan, used by him to expose the Christian Religion, and thereby to introduce Atheism. And indeed we are sure, that the wits of Italy, where these abominable deceits have been, and are, chiefly countenanced, were the first broachers of Infidelity and Atheism in Europe, since the time that Christianity prevailed in it." Bp. Bull, Serm. iv. vol. i. p. 106, ed. Oxf. 1827.

* Heidegger's note deserves attention: (Myst. Babylon. i. 53.) "Meretrix a Bestiá distinguenda est. Meretrix in Bestiâ sedet eamque regit, subjicit, et ad facienda imperata flectit. Bestia, multitudo regnum constituens, meretricem Baorále ... Eadem utrobique Babylon: sed parte imperante et parente discreta."

These Ten Horns, as Mede observes, are not to be regarded as distributed among the Seven Heads, but as all issuing from the Seventh Head.

Rev. xiii. 1. The word here rendered crowns is diadnμara, the emblem of royalty, distinguished from σreparòs, (Rev. vi. 2,) the crown of victory. Both are ascribed to CHRIST. See Rev.

vi. 2. xix. 12.

it is added, had not received power in St. John's age, but were afterwards to receive it, at one hour, that is, at one and the same time with the Beast.

Now, if we imagine the Woman on the Beast to be Heathen, and not Christian, Rome, where were these ten kingdoms, which had not existed in St. John's age, and which were to arise and receive power contemporaneously with Heathen Rome? It was destroyed before such kingdoms arose. None can be found to correspond to St. John's description.

But now adopt, again, the other supposition. Let the Beast, with the Woman enthroned upon it, represent a Church. Let it represent the Church planted on the Seven Hills on which the Woman sits; let it represent the Church of Rome. Then all is plain. The prophecy is wonderfully fulfilled, and is proved to be divine. When the Empire of Rome fell, new kingdoms arose from its ruins. The ten horns of the Beast sprouted up; then the Church of Rome increased in strength; and these kingdoms received power at the same time with her.

And look again at the prophecy. These kings, we read, give their power and strength to the Beast. They reign, as kings, at the same time with the Beast. As kings-that is, they are called kings-but the Beast is the real Sovereign of their subjects. And what is the fact? The European kingdoms which arose at the dissolution of the Roman Empire did

* μiar pay, Rev. xvii. 12. Το ὥρα πειρασμοῦ, iii. 10.

surrender themselves to the dominion of the Church of Rome. Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Hungary, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and our own England, for many centuries, were subject to the Papacy. The Woman who sat upon the Beast had her hand upon its ten Horns, and held them firmly in her grasp. She treats them as her subjects. The Papal coins proclaim this. "Omnes Reges servient ei." "Gens et Regnum, quod tibi non servierit, peribit *." Such are her claims, declared at the Coronation of every Pontiff: "Know thyself the Father of Kings and Princes, Ruler of the World." These are the words with which he is addressed †, when the tiara is placed on his brow. And thus, in this very subjection of the kingdoms of the earth to Rome, in this her amplitude of dominion and plenitude of felicity, of which she has vaunted herself for so many generations as a proof that she is favoured by Heaven, we recognize another proof that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is no other than the Church of Rome.

V. Still further: These Horns, or kingdoms, which received power together with the Beast, will one day rise against it, and tear the flesh of the Harlot, and burn her with fire ‡.

Now, again, for argument's sake, let the Woman

*See Numismata Pontificum, Paris, 1679, p. 50. 58.

Banck, Roma Triumphans, p. 271. These words were addressed to the present Pope, Pius IX. See Letters to Gondon, Lett. XII. p. 317.

Rev. xvii. 16.

on the Beast be Heathen Rome. Then, we readily allow, that Alaric with his Goths, Attila with his Huns, Genseric with his Vandals, Odoacer with his Heruli, did indeed sack the city of Rome *. But when did they ever receive power together with Rome? when did they give their power and their strength to Heathen Rome? Never. If, therefore, the Woman upon the Beast is only the City of Pagan Rome, then the Prophecy of St. John has failed. But the marvel predicted by the Apocalypse is this—and a stupendous mystery it is—that some of the powers which received strength with the Beast, and gave up their might to it, they, under the overruling sway of God's retributive justice, will one day rise against the Woman seated on the Beast, and tear her flesh, and burn her with fire t. And, what is still more awfully marvellous, they will do this, although they will league with the Beast and with the False Prophet against Christ; and they will destroy Babylon, not for love of Sion; not for the maintenance of God's truth, or for the advancement of His glory; but in a mysterious transport of indignation, and in a wild ecstasy of revenge; and when they have done the deed, and have destroyed Babylon, they will weep over her §.

Such is the Prophecy of St. John. This portion

* Alaric, A. D. 410; Attila, A. D. 452; Genseric, A. D. 455; Odoacer, A. D. 476. Rev. xvii. 16.

Rev. xvii. 13, 14. xix. 19. See below, Lecture XIII.

§ Rev. xviii. 11.

of it remains to be fulfilled. But Pagan Rome has long since ceased to be. Therefore, these predictions cannot concern Pagan Rome: but they do concern the seven-hilled City Rome; and, therefore, they point at Papal Rome: and the Woman upon the Beast is not Heathen Rome, but it is the City and the Church of Papal Rome.

VI. Again: Let us look forward, and examine the Apocalyptic Prophecy, which describes the state of the mystical Babylon after her fall.

Her condition, we are taught in the Apocalypse, will then be like that of the literal, the Assyrian, Babylon after its destruction. The Prophet Isaiah says of Babylon, when desolate: Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there*. And Jeremiah predicts, Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing †.

So St. John prophesies of the mystical Babylon:Babylon the great (he says) is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird ‡. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her; for her sins have reached to heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities §.

* Isa. xiii. 21.

Rev. xviii. 2.

+ Jer. li. 37.

§ Rev. xviii. 3. 5.